


Halloween Miracle

by Faltering_Light



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:15:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22339909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faltering_Light/pseuds/Faltering_Light
Summary: Kirk makes a crack about Uhura complimenting him being a Halloween Miracle, but she's pretty sure the real miracle is getting to watch him interact with a baby. Will her Captain ever trust her enough to stop hiding parts of himself from her? Maybe not, but she's happy to get this facet, at least.
Relationships: James T. Kirk & Nyota Uhura
Comments: 8
Kudos: 55





	Halloween Miracle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trekkele](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trekkele/gifts).



“What the fuck are we supposed to do with it?”

A split second later and he was dancing away with an overly exaggerated wince, hand protectively covering the place on his arm she had just punched.

“What the fuck was that for!?”

“ _James Tiberius Kirk_ , you are _more_ than old enough to know not to swear in front of small children, and babies are not its, they are people.”

“It’s a baby! It’s not like it’s going to start copying me.”

Nyota Uhura was exactly one thing at the moment, and that was completely done with her Captain’s shit. “It’s the principal of the thing. Haven’t you ever been around little kids before?”

A strange look crossed his face before he pulled on his ‘I’m hiding something uncomfortable and I would literally rather die than tell you about it’ face, the one mostly only the senior crew knew was absolutely not the ‘carefree idiot with no troubles at all’ look he wanted them to believe it was.

She decided to let it slide, even though the little glimpse had her on edge. By this point she knew that there was much more to this particular idiot than the frat boy jock persona he had pushed so hard back at the Academy, such as literally none of those descriptors applying to him even remotely. That he used it to hide many painful things.

That he was apparently still hiding something worse than what he had already ever-so-sparingly teased out over the past years was, quite frankly, absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking in equal measure.

Plus, this place wasn’t Terra, but it was close _enough_ , and while this celebration wasn’t Halloween by a long shot, it was close _enough_ , and while she was no longer particularly fond of wandering around in a mask anymore [What was the point of exploring a new world if she couldn’t start compiling information about facial expressions? Most of the data she collected would be useless without such an integral part of this culture’s body language...] Jim was obviously enamored of the whole fiasco.

“Are you going to help me out here, or did you get distracted by my dashing good looks again?”

His smile was a little wider, a little more strained at the edges, if you knew what to look for. She had spaced out a little too long.

“In your dreams, Kirk.”

He staggered back, hands over his heart. “Oh, ouch! Straight from going full name on me like even my mother never did right back to Kirk, that’s cold. I’m having cafeteria flashbacks. And coffee shop flashbacks, And library flashbacks. And-”

The thin, reedy wail rising from the stroller cut off his deflection. Stroller wasn’t quite accurate, but close enough until she got the proper word. It was more like a wheeled bassinet.

“They asked you to watch it.”

“I don’t know what to do with it! And didn’t you just smack me for calling it an it?”

“I changed my mind.”

“Wow, okay. I think you just got some wires crossed there, confused hitting on me with _actually_ hitting me.”

“Jim.”

“Yeah?”

“We are literally both in long term, committed, _closed_ relationships.” Not to mention the bit where they were more siblings by choice than anything, this was just his go-to method for distancing himself and they both knew it. It was easier to play along and let him see that she wouldn’t push than to try to pry his secrets from him. In time, he would find the words he needed if he trusted her enough to give them to her.

“How do you know we didn’t renegotiate?” He waggled his eyebrows in a way that wasn’t nearly as impressive as he thought it was and probably at least twice as suggestive.

“Because Len is the biggest gossip on the ship, Spock is the second biggest, and I would have known within the hour.”

Jim threw back his head and flat out cackled. “They really are that bad, aren’t they?”

She laughed a bit too. This was too surreal, such familiar sights with such a familiar person somewhere they had never set foot before, stuck watching over an infant. She felt a bit disjointed. “If you want to know something on the Enterprise, talk to an engineer. If you want to know something _fast_ on the Enterprise, eavesdrop on Spock and Len.”

Jim laughed again and leaned down over the bassinet, booping the baby on the nose. “You hear that, little one? If you want to know anything, skip Uncle Jim and go straight beneath the table next to our very rational, serious, no-nonsense, suuuper logical science people, okay?” He swooped the baby up, immediately shifting into a soft sway as he cooed more adjectives their CMO and CSO used for themselves that everyone else knew only just barely applied most of the time.

From what she knew, he was holding it correctly, supporting the head and cradling the body so that it would feel secure. Judging from the way the crying was dying down, and the ease with which he had slipped into playing caretaker so abruptly, this was far from his first time with a fussy baby. She had three younger sisters and she didn’t think she would have been able to calm the baby that quickly.

“We could just keep him.”

“We are _not_ kidnapping a child.”

“If the parent leaves the kid with you and you wander off, is it _really_ kidnapping?”

“Yes.”

“I’m calling bullshit.”

“We don’t have the resources to properly care for a baby on board.”

“We’ve literally had babies born on the ship, Three in the past few months, even. I’m pretty sure we could handle it."

“Oh, we could handle it... If we had any information about this species at all. You know better than anyone that looking human doesn’t mean they have the same requirements.”

“Wait, was that a... compliment? Look, little tiny, a Halloween miracle!”

She rolled her eyes and sighed, only for Jim to laugh again and start making faces at the little one. She could see the parent making their way back down the street towards them now, but after a moment of hesitation, decided not to say anything just yet.

With how happy looked, so genuinely relaxed and smiling in a way she couldn’t remember seeing at any point before, it would probably be better to give him these extra few minutes, right?


End file.
